Showing posts with label Haunted Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haunted Love. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

My Top Ten Librarian Songs



Ten songs about librarians. Shh!

(The Tori Amos "Greatest Hits" collection pictured above doesn't contain any librarian songs, but did order the songs using the Dewey Decimal System.)


10. The Research - Librarian Girl

Wakefield indie band from the early noughties. No relation to the Michael Jackson song (sic).

We're all looking for a meaning in a meaningless world.

9. Jimmy Buffett - Love In The Library

And I thought Jimmy spent all his time messing about on boats. Turns out he also hangs around in libraries, looking for love...

She gathered her books, walked while she read
Words never spoken but so much was said
You can read all you want into this rendezvous
But it's safer than most things that lovers can do

8. Hefner - The Librarian

He started to woo her in the most peculiar way
The librarian's dress was a fawner shade of grey
The books he was to borrow he would surely never read
They had an intellectual calibre he hoped that she would see

Been there. Didn't get me anywhere.

7. Eels - Baby Loves Me

Record company hates me
The doctor says I'm sick
The bad girls think I'm just too nice
And the nice girls call me "dick"
But baby loves me!

(And the librarian shushes him too. Poor E.)

6. My Morning Jacket - The Librarian

Simple little bookworm, buried underneath
Is the sexiest librarian, 
Take off those glasses and let down your hair for me

Steady on, fellas...

I like this song because it mentions both "the interweb" and "Karen of the Carpenters".

5. Haunted Love - The Librarian

I want to check out your books...

Innuendo never sounded so buttoned-up and proper!

4. The Divine Comedy - My Imaginary Friend

Remember the mobile library? Neil does...

Daddy drives the mobile library.
He works peripatetically.
He doesn't get much time to play with us
So we just read and make up stuff.
And it drives him round the bend,
Me and my imaginary friend.
You can search the whole library for another song that features the word "peripatetically"... good luck in finding one.


More early Go-Betweens - from their first ever single, the b-side to Lee Remick.

I know this girl
This very special girl
And she works in a library, yeah
Standing there behind the counter
Willing to help
With all the problems that I encounter
Helps me find Hemingway
Helps me find Genet
Helps me find Brecht
Helps me find Chandler
Helps me find James Joyce
She always makes the right choice

2. INXS - Heaven Sent

Tuesday she works in the library uptown
Some useful knowledge can always be found
Don't burn the library till you've read all the books
Sometimes in life you get a second look

Not a band that were known for their great literary offerings, but they sure could bang out a tune.

1. Nick Cave - There She Goes, My Beautiful World

Name-dropping the most famous librarian ever and notorious parent-abuser...

While Philip Larkin, he stuck it out 
In a library in Hull


Any librarians filed in your stacks? Dewey decimal placings will be required.

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

My Top Ten Haunted Songs

Have a haunted Halloween on me...


10. Shirley Lee - The Haunted
So much sadness is not good for you...
From last year's excellent double album Winter Autumn Summer Spring, the Spearmint man scares away the spectres.

9. John Fogerty - Haunted House

For the man who gave us Bad Moon Rising, living in a haunted house is no big deal.

8. Seth Lakeman - I'll Haunt You

When Seth Lakeman goes off to sea, his woman promises to be faithful. When the Dear John letter arrives, he threatens a punishment most eerie...
I'll haunt you, haunt your bed
Tap the windows, you'll wake in dread
I pray that you love me instead
I'll haunt you, I'll haunt your bed
And I'll haunt you, sleep in fear!
Whisper secrets in your ear
A world away but I'll be near,
I'll haunt you.
7. Dodgy - Melodies Haunt You

Not the Dodgy song everybody remembers, but certainly less dodgy than many of their Britpop contemporaries.

6. Superman Revenge Squad - Yeah, This House Is Haunted

Can't go wrong with a bit of Superman Revenge Squad every now and then. Great lyrics, as always.

5. Saint Etienne - Haunted Jukebox

From the new Saint Etienne album, Words & Music, which is really quite lovely in places.

4. Pavement - Haunt You Down
 
Just a guess here, but Stephen Malkmus might be seeing ghosts because of something he's been smoking. Hardly a case for Scooby Doo or Peter Venkman. 

3. Haunted Love - Werewolf

A seriously spooky song from a New Zealand band named after an old Charlton horror comic. What's not to love?

2. Gene - Haunted By You
From the pub to the grave
I'll be haunted by you
Yes, you, you're in my way
Seems as good a place as any to mention the long-awaited solo album by Martin Rossiter... if you haven't ordered your copy yet, find out more about it here.

Gene almost won their second Number One here on My Top Ten... and then I remembered this...

1. Sinéad O'Connor & Shane MacGowan - Haunted

As everyone's favourite Christmas record proves, there's something irresistible about pairing the drunken bum vocals of Shane MacGowan with an angel. Kirsty will always be the most famous example of that... but Sinéad comes a close second. Just beautiful.
The first time I saw you 
Standing in the street 
You were so cool you could have 
Put out Vietnam




Those were the most haunting songs in my collection... but which one keeps you awake a night?






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